OMSA looks to bring students together with Brown Bag Lunch

Before the recent Office of Multicultural Student Affairs Brown Bag Lunch, Ijuanzee Isom, program specialist for OMSA and an alumnus of VCU, said it is important for students to learn about other ethnic backgrounds.

“These brown bag lunches are targeted toward the entire VCU student body,” Isom said. “There are 13 different ethnic groups that are represented by our office.”

Isom said brown bag lunches give everyone in the VCU community an opportunity to become involved in topics concerning students.

“The main objective is to increase conversation among students,” Isom said.

The lunches are open, biweekly meetings that include almost all ethnic groups on campus.

Students deal with topics such as family values in different cultures, ethnic differences and issues that some international students may face.

At the last brown bag lunch, the group discussed the topic: “Not all Asians are Chinese.”

PhiAnh Nguyen, vice president for the Vietnamese Student Organization, said everyone thought she was Chinese because of her eyes.

“They don’t know any other Asian countries,” she said.

Brown bag lunches, Nguyen said, are important because there are many more Asians races within the VCU community.

“It is hard because all people associate Vietnam to the war, and there is more to the country than that,” she said.

During the lunch, Nguyen said her challenge in coming to VCU was in being accepted.

“When you’re a kid it’s easier. You just want to play and have fun. Everyone is accepted,” she said. “It gets harder when you are older.”

Still, Nguyen said she has noticed an increase in diversity at VCU.

“Asians stand out,” she said. “Everywhere I look I can spot them.”